Ephrem’s Commentary on Genesis stands at the head of a long history of Syriac literature that finds its source in this first book of the Bible. This literature comprises other narrative commentaries, several treatises in question and answer format, as well as numerous poetic treatments, by such figures as Narsai and Jacob of Sarug, that have themes from Genesis as their subject, e.g., Paradise, the Fall, Cain and Abel, etc. Ephrem’s Commentary also serves as the starting point of a Syriac Hexaemeral tradition that includes such figures as Jacob of Sarug, Jacob of Edessa, Moshe bar Kêphâ and Emmanuel bar...

I had not wanted to write a commentary on the first book of Creation, lest we should now repeat what we had set down in the metrical homilies and hymns. Nevertheless, compelled by the love of friends, we have written briefly of those things of which we wrote at length in the metrical homilies and in the hymns.¹

2. The reason that Moses² wrote [this book] is as follows: the Creator had been manifest to the mind of the first generations, even up until the [generation of] the Tower.³ The fact that creatures were created was also publicly taught. Moreover, from...

Ephrem entitled his Commentary on the Book of Exodus a tûrgāmâ (“interpretation”), the Syriac cognate of the Hebrew targum. The Commentary is by no means a comprehensive treatment of the Book of Exodus, nor is Ephrem’s handling of the biblical text consistent throughout the work. Rather, the Commentary is an elucidation of selective portions of the text that Ephrem has highlighted for their theological significance.

(2) Throughout the major part of the Commentary, Ephrem is concerned with a straightforward explanation of the significance of the events recorded in the Book of Exodus. There is some incidental use made of the...

Exodus, the second book of the Law,⁴ tells about the seventy souls who entered Egypt with Jacob,

(2) about the death of Jacob and the people of his generation, and that a new king arose who killed the infants,

(3) that Moses escaped in a basket, and became the son of Pharaoh’s daughter,

(4) and that, when Moses became a man, he went out among his brothers to see if deliverance could be achieved through him,⁵

(5) and that he killed an Egyptian, and reprimanded a Hebrew who made an accusation against him, then he fled to Midian.

(6)[Moses writes]...

As the only surviving example of a prose mîmrâ by Ephrem, The Homily on Our Lord preserves rare evidence of Ephrem’s ability to achieve rhetorical elegance in a non-poetic form of writing.¹ The Homily is replete with elaborate stylistic devices that demonstrate a highly developed technical skill. This carefully crafted prose style, sometimes called “artistic prose,” is also found among Ephrem’s contemporaries in the Greek-speaking world, notably the Cappadocian Fathers.² Syria stood at the crossroads of the ancient world where Semitic, Hellenistic, and Mesopotamian cultures freely intermingled. The existence of similar rhetorical styles in Syriac and Greek is a reminder...

Goodness encountered slandering mouths and made them praising harps; this is why all mouths should give praise to the one who removed slanderous speech from them.² Praise to you who set out from one haven and resided in another, to come and make us a haven for the One who sent you.³

(2) The Only-Begotten⁴ journeyed from the God-head⁵ and resided in a virgin, so that through physical birth the Only-Begotten would become a brother to many.⁶ And he journeyed from Sheol and resided in the kingdom, to tread a path from Sheol, which cheats everyone, to the kingdom, which...

The Letter to Publius was relatively unknown until 1901, when the great British scholar F. C. Burkitt, in his study of Ephrem’s Gospel quotations, remarked that it was “surprising that no one has ever thought it worth while to edit.”¹ Despite Burkitt’s urging, no one undertook the task for over seventy years until Sebastian Brock edited the Letter with an accompanying English translation and commentary in 1976.² The Letter survives in a single manuscript, Brit. Lib. Add. 7190, ff. 188^r–193^r,³ which W. Wright dates to the twelfth century.⁴ The manuscript contains numerous extracts, from both Greek and Syriac writers,...

You would do well not to let fall from your hands the polished mirror of the holy Gospel of your Lord,¹ which reproduces the image of everyone who gazes at it and the likeness of everyone who peers into it. While it keeps its own natural quality, undergoes no change, is devoid of any spots, and is free of any soiling, it changes its appearance before colors although it itself is not changed.²

Before white things it becomes [white] like them.

Before black things, it becomes dark like them.

Before red things [it becomes] red like them.

Before beautiful things,...